Outer Rim Stations Tour photo journal 1: 98 K Tauri to the Witch Head nebula
01 Jul 2018Thunktone
3304 July 01, Sunday13:08
I've headed towards the core a couple of times now, gone well over 20kly from my home in Orrere. But this time I'll be going the other way, and not alone. I suppose I wasn't alone on those research trips but the scientists were secretive types who stayed in their cabins for weeks. It should be more fun with so many other pilots going along.
So here I am, just a few days after joining the war against the thargoids, ready to leave on a sightseeing tour. Some would call me a deserter, but I'll be back.
15:25
Not so far from the thargoids as I thought! Maybe the brochure mentioned this, come to think of it. There was something about barnacles anyway I think. I've never taken on one of these big ones and I don't have any weapons on my Diamondback anyway. This is a research and exploration vessel. Should've fitted a xeno scanner though.
15:43
I've seen stranger combinations of stars, but there is something quite pretty about 98 K Tauri, the start system for the tour.
???
Company, I'm not used to this. Not the main body of the tour group I think, just a motley collection of pilots who happen to be on similar sleep schedules.
16:59
One down. A pirate crashed the party and shot down one of the big Lakon transporters. I think it was a type 9 but I never caught the pilot's name. When the pirate came back for more I took some shots at it from my SRV. That kept it busy strafing me until another pilot showed up with a weapon and provoked it into chasing him away. Makes me wonder how well this tour will fare with us all so toothless. It's a station tour after all, we can't rely on distance and void to keep us safe from pirates.
17:34
I was just introduced to a new spacefarer's ritual: the mass jump. One pilot stays put to photograph it while the rest line up and jump to the same system at the same time.
18:39
The tour will be taking in some of the nebulae most visible from the core systems. In the photo below, the purple one is Witch Head where we'll be meeting up tomorrow. The big one is, or course, Barnard's Loop. We'll get there eventually I think although I gather most of it is permit-locked. Some old spacer I met a few weeks back reckons that's where the thargoids come from. But he reckoned a lot of things.
I think the dark one in front of Barnard's Loop is the Orion Nebula where we meet up on Wednesday. That's popular with tourists, so there should be some good photo opportunities there.
18:53
It seems like pirates get everywhere these days. This is my second interdiction in HIP 23759, just cruising from where I jumped in to the science centre. Not too hard to avoid in my Diamondback. I expect they'd get bored when they realised my hold is empty anyway. I do wish I was in my Viper at times like these though.
19:00
Here I am arriving at the Witch Head Science Centre. Or, more accurately, here I am flying past the same rock for the third time trying to get a decent photo.
Signing off for today.